In the 1960s, Susan Womer Katzev, a marine illustrator, and her husband, the archaeologist Michael L. Katzev, spent two summers diving with a team beneath the lapping waves of the Mediterranean off Cyprus. Their quarry was an ancient shipwreck on the sandy ocean floor discovered just years earlier by a man foraging for sponge. After more than 2,000 years underwater, much of its hull and cargo — old plates, coins, amphoras that once held wine and others that still held almonds — were remarkably intact. Mrs. Katzev’s drawings and photographs helped document a discovery that revealed not only ancient trading behaviors but also a wealth of information about how the Greeks built ships. For decades, her and her husband’s efforts have been heralded for their central role in establishing nautical archaeology as a field.

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Persons: Susan Womer Katzev, Michael L, Katzev, Katzev’s Organizations: Archaeological Institute of America Locations: Cyprus, Kyrenia, Rhodes